Ferndale library nearly doubles in size, offers green features

The Ferndale Public Library opened up its doors after a renovation last month, offering more space, green features, and a bigger collection.In a statement on the library’s website, library director Doug Raber says the venue “has a completely new look…We have a beautiful new, green building, new public access computers and new material… There are comfortable chairs for curling up with a book, a quiet reading room with a fireplace, small meeting rooms for private study or conversation, and plenty of places to sit down and open a laptop.”The entire building has wi-fi and the new children’s room offers space to spread out and read. A new meeting room facility is available for community groups.The facility on Nine Mile Road on the eastern edge of downtown nearly doubled its size to 21,000 square feet. The addition, paid for by a one-mill tax increase last year, provides space to increase staffing and the funds to double the library’s purchasing budget for books and other media.The library is going for silver LEED certification for its environmentally friendly features, including a geothermal heating system, a gray water recycling system, and a partial green roof.”It is a sign of Ferndale’s vitality and resilience that it is opening a new library facility to provide cultural programming and information services so needed at this time,” Raber writes. “People need public libraries now more than ever, and we’re ready to do our part to help people cope and thrive in difficult times.”Source: Ferndale Public LibraryWriter: Kristin Lukowski